suppaball wrote:about the run D. We got torched by Gore and Peterson. The best and one of the best in the league. SF and Minnyhotta also have pretty good Olines. we will be fine.

Upon following the Hawks since 1976, I can't enumerate the number of times that I have heard,".....we'll be fine." That's akin to a "jinx"! Sure as tootin', the Defense will get a "big head" from reading the newspapers and listening to the ESPN radio jocks, this team will go down hill. They, instead, need to be reminded that their tackling techniques need to be improved!

I think a key component in this all is TOP, and how you amass the 200 yards. Peterson got almost 200 yards on 17 carries, and the majortiy of them where amassed on huge break aways which eat maybe 1 minute max from the clock. The niners are more succesful at it as they ground and pound and amass their yardage with G&P for 8 yards here and there, and eat 45 secs off the clock everytime in doing so. Its good to get the odd big break away and score a highlight real TD like Petersen does, but give me ours (or the niners) formula which eats up half the clock whislt doing so and limits the time your opponenet has the ball

We got much better team depth than we had a couple of years ago (remember what happened to the D after that raiders game? ouch!), but it's still not there yet. Lose a couple of guys to injury and suddenly there's problems.

Last week, we only allowed 84 yards rushing. All anyone wanted to talk about was how our D let us down and Stafford lit us up.

The week before, we only allowed 138 yards passing, but Gore broke off some big runs. So obviously, it was our run D that was garbage.

The fact is that those top-flight run and pass offenses don't get that way just by facing a bunch of bad defenses. They are designed that way and operate that way, and they are a challenge to stop. Failing to stop them doesn't suddenly mean our D is bad. It does, I would argue, mean our D isn't quite at the elite level many folks thought. It is still top 10, though, by just about any measure.

Our LB corps is still very young and inexperienced, and I think most of our recent struggles can be traced to that fact - at least to some degree.

Context matters. I'm gonna keep saying this, SF and MIN are two of the hardest running teams in the league to stop, and NE and DET are two of the hardest passing teams to stop. It's not embarrassing to give up yards to them. The formula there is to play hard, look for key plays, keep the other offense off the field (one of my biggest issues vs. DET was that Lynch carried only 12 times), and in the meantime keep up with your own offense. We beat New England and Minnesota in this way. We almost beat Detroit with this way. Injuries have been part of the problem. I'm content.

There are problems, yes, but not fundamental ones demanding firings and draft picks.

"We don't even need your stupid a-- that much. We can win Super Bowls with retired Kerry f------- Collins right now, and you want to be the highest paid player of all-time? F--- you." - Tical21 to Russell Wilson, 6/30/15

MontanaHawk05 wrote:Context matters. I'm gonna keep saying this, SF and MIN are two of the hardest running teams in the league to stop, and NE and DET are two of the hardest passing teams to stop. It's not embarrassing to give up yards to them. The formula there is to play hard, look for key plays, keep the other offense off the field (one of my biggest issues vs. DET was that Lynch carried only 12 times), and in the meantime keep up with your own offense. We beat New England and Minnesota in this way. We almost beat Detroit with this way. Injuries have been part of the problem. I'm content.

There are problems, yes, but not fundamental ones demanding firings and draft picks.

Last week, we only allowed 84 yards rushing. All anyone wanted to talk about was how our D let us down and Stafford lit us up.

The week before, we only allowed 138 yards passing, but Gore broke off some big runs. So obviously, it was our run D that was garbage.

The fact is that those top-flight run and pass offenses don't get that way just by facing a bunch of bad defenses. They are designed that way and operate that way, and they are a challenge to stop. Failing to stop them doesn't suddenly mean our D is bad. It does, I would argue, mean our D isn't quite at the elite level many folks thought. It is still top 10, though, by just about any measure.

Our LB corps is still very young and inexperienced, and I think most of our recent struggles can be traced to that fact - at least to some degree.

I wouldn't be worried about it if top rushing teams ran on us more than other teams do. That makes sense if you say it like that. But I agree, context really matters here.

In the SF and Minny games it wasn't a case of the great rushing teams doing more than the average team at all. We are talking about 175 yrds and 243 yrds. That is more than just the case of a good back behind a great line having a good day, that is getting it rammed down your throats all day long. And the Detroit game, they didn't even rush the ball much in that game so it doesn't exactly ease the worries if you ask me. Then you hear people say how we adjusted and shut down the run in the second half against Minny yesterday, what was it that they rushed the ball? like 5 times? Hard to say they shut something down that wasn't even attempted. and 40some yards and 5 carries? isn't that somewhere in the 8+ ypc territory anyway? I think we should be thankful that they stopped rushing the ball.

But anyway I'm not freaking out here or crying in my beer about it just calling like it is. The run defense is terrible right now and it IS very surprising considering where it was. It's always been our main strength and it's concerning when it goes on hiatus. I believe we'll get it back at some point but concerning nontheless.